The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum hosts a major new installation of recent work by renowned artist Anselm Kiefer. The exhibition, housed in a custom-built, 1,000 square foot building designed by the artist, is on view through October 1, 2006.

 

The exhibition, Velimir Chlebnikov, features a group of thirty paintings based on Velimir Chlebnikov, a Russian eccentric poet and thinker who has long fascinated Kiefer.

 

Chlebnikov is best known for creating analytical systems based on arcane mathematical calculations, which aim to indicate historical paradoxes. Kiefer casts Chlebnikov's complex ideas in the midst of an historic sea battle, onto the surface of canvas, resulting in thirty works that are actually part painting, part sculpture, as he applies actual ship models onto the surface of highly-worked canvases that he has applied layer upon layer of oil paint.

 

The thirty paintings that make up this epic work, are housed in a purpose-built pavilion that is an exact replica of Kiefer's own studios in Barjac, Provence, the site of his home and studio.

 

Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany. As a young German artist reeling from the legacy of World War II, he studied and produced native art that explored German history and identity. In the seventies, Kiefer turned to process-oriented objects that included elements of collage, paint, and lead applied to photographs. After settling in the south of France, and a brief hiatus from art-making, Kiefer began making work based on an entirely different subject matter that embraced themes of spiritual and philosophical concerns. Kiefer has exhibited his diverse body of work throughout the world over the past forty years, and is included in the world's most prestigious collections.